Asthma H33 July 2000 at Elsenham

This is a very interesting area with great controversy about the reasons for the rise in Asthma. As you can see with teenagers the rate peaks at ~ 20% but then falls off in middle age apparently rising again in the elderly. We feel that the older men have been wrongly tagged as Asthmatic while in fact they probably are really COAD due to heavy smoking in earlier years.Ours is a rural practice surrounded by high intensity agriculture and near to Stansted airport.

There has been discussion about exhaust pollution, Ozone levels and high levels of dust particles from the agriculture. It is very noticeable that when the combines are out in the fields that the number of emergency calls for treatment goes up.